Royal Ascot and Yvette Jelfs: Edinburgh Milliner, Millinery Courses

The first time I went to Royal Ascot was the summer of 1986. I was dazzled by the panoply of colour and sheer style and energy that paraded the enclosure. The women and their clothes were as exciting to watch as the dazzling line up in the paddock. No wonder Gold Cup day is known as Ladies Day; the fashion dominates the scene and is the canvas against which the racing is set. Royal Ascot has always reflected and often defined the fashion of the times, but how has a racecourse evolved into a catwalk? Having now been attending for nearly 20 years I think I am closer to understanding why this particular sporting event should have become so intrinsically linked with fashion. It all comes back to our love of rules: both of following them and breaking them. You see Royal Ascot has a dress code. Imagine Royal Ascot without a code of dress? Where would be the challenge? We would resort to practical clothing and it would become just another racing week. The rules set this event aside and put us on our mettle to dress within those very same rules in as chic or outlandish a manner as possible. One of the defining rules has always been that heads must be covered. As Royal Ascot has discovered this is a rule very open to interpretation. I have seen hats with racecourses in miniature around the brim, a hat formed as a giant poppy and a hat disguised as a plate of fried breakfast! Gertrude Shilling epitomised this exuberance in the late sixties and early 70's. Some of the David Shilling creations she wore included a hat decorated with a hamper of strawberries and champagne glasses, a hat shaped as a piano keyboard and even a hat concealed beneath a giraffe! Looking through Royal Ascot's photographic history you can see first hand the evolution of the best, and worst, of fashion over the last half century. This is the ultimate forum for fashion and it was here that people found out what worked off the catwalk, and what didn't. In 1950's Hardy Amies, Coco Chanel and Norman Hartnell were dressing women with inimitable elegance and style. Tailored dresses and suits and smart tweed and wool coats were to be seen on the best dressed at Royal Ascot. Hemlines were well below the knee and there was a truly ladylike feel to the clothes worn at Ascot. This was also the age of accessories: a fur stole might be draped over the shoulder, strings of pearls were a popular jewellery choice, gloves were de rigeur and the look was finished with softly shaped little hats with discreet amounts of veiling. A look that has recently started to re-emerge in our own wardrobes with the revival of vintage styles. As you flick through the photographs you can see the restrained elegance of the 50's start to fray before the youthful exuberance of the swinging sixties. Rising hemlines, pill box hats, little shift dresses and bare arms make their presence known for the first time at the racecourse, reflecting the changes in taste and fashion. The "Modern" generation arrived at the gates of the Ascot in satins, silks and patterns, shunning the more conservative fabrics and styles of the previous decade and embracing the edicts of Vogue and the style of Jackie Kennedy. Look around you now and you will see the best of these two decades reincarnated in today's fashions. Smart coats in satins and luscious tweeds with neat collars and large buttons. Shift dresses with pockets jauntily sewn onto the front. Alongside these are the pretty printed chiffons and flirty georgette dresses that might have graced the Royal Enclosure 50 years ago. The rule about covering your head still stands, but now it might be a headpiece of stripped heckle or luscious coq feathers that catches the eye. But the influences of Ascot fashion don't stop with Jackie Kennedy and the 60's. The 1970's saw their own share of intriguing, and occasionally dreadful, fashion trends strolling the racecourse. The Royal Enclosure took a deep breath and welcomed beehives, kaftans, knee length plastic boots and ever shortening dresses in the new nylons and rayons printed with the fashionable computerised designs and geometrical patterns. As ever, it was the younger set who introduced these new looks to the racecourse. The traditionalists, still in their smart suits and practical heels muttered about anarchy and dress codes and turned the other cheek. The first part of the 1980's saw a new fashion shoulder it's way, quite literally, into Royal Ascot. This was the era of Dallas, Power Dressing and the women executives and fashion in the Royal Enclosure reflected this. Shoulder pads, stark colouring and quilted Chanel shoulder bags were de rigeur and Frederick Fox, Philip Treacy and David Shilling were on their mettle and produced ravishing sculptured confections that broke new ground in millinery design. By the 1990's fashion was becoming more eclectic. No longer was a look so definable. Designers and Racegoers were looking to a wealth of sources for their inspiration. Suits, Dresses, Hairpieces, Trouser Suits, they all appeared in the Royal Enclosure. The only constant was the gentlemen's Morning Suits and Top Hats. The imagination of the milliners knew no bounds and hats evolved into works of art. They may have been required for etiquette originally but hats and headpieces have become the modern standard bearers for fashion at the races. Now, more than ever, I am excited about what I might see at Royal Ascot. A vintage 1940's dress with a bandeau of feathers? A slick trouser suit with impossibly high heels and a rakish Stephen Jones top hat? An homage a Jackie, complete with pill box and dark glasses? A printed floaty dress with a shawl for those light breezes and a soft, beret style hat? Or something completely new that has not yet impinged on the consciousness as a new fashion? Every year Royal Ascot produces fashion successes and faux pas, visual delights and ground breaking designs, all presented with vivacity and verve. The newspapers will be full of photographs of the famous and the unknown dressed to thrill the crowd and themselves. At Royal Ascot, fashion has found purpose.